My first whole day in Paris started slowly which was a welcome change from the past couple days. Alice had a couple errands to run in the city in the morning so I stuck around to write some more entries. Once she came back we went into the car and headed to Versailles.
Versailles was only about a 20 minute drive from their apartment so it didn't take long to get there. But since we had such a late start parking was had to come by. We got into the city around noon and drove around for another 20 until we came upon a two hour pay lot. We paid for our time knowing that very likely we would be gone for more than two hours but hoped that we wouldn't run into any problems. As we walked up towards the palace here were quite a few street sellers trying to sell you Eiffel tower key chains figures and scarves. These guys became very common place in any area where tourists where.
We walked by without incident and made our way to buy tickets. Wow what a long line for tickets. I heard that many tourists where avoiding London because of the Olympics which made Paris even busier than usual. It was jam packed. We were waiting in this massive line until I noticed a sign for automated tickets. I waited in Line while Alice inspected and she came back moments later with tickets in hand. Not the best crowd control I suppose.
Once we passed through security, which every where you pass through metal detectors and your bag through xray, we were inside the palace. And again it was swarming with tourists including tons of Asians. Alice woad that they gets lot of Asian tourists and it is their dream to visit Paris. She also said that there is a psychological problem that some of them have when they return because the Parisians where so rude to them. That's good stuff if I don't say so myself. Well back to Versailles.
The lower level has the history of the location and displays on how it developed over the years. Again it was swarming with people so it was difficult to get close enough to anything to be able to read the displays. Not that I could read all of them because all of them where in French and only a select few where also in English. Well I didn't end up seeing to much on the main floor besides some very large paintings and tons of people.
I wonder how they were done because if they were all done by someone always painting upside down that would be impressive. And some of the paintings along the walls were truly massive. Many of them where easily 30 feet across if not even larger. The there was one room that was just out of the this world.
The Hall of Mirrors was at least 100 yards long with mirrors on one side with windows flanking another. And all along the room were chandeliers. The design of the room, all the reflection of mirrors and the light from the windows was just amazing. From the mirror room we ventured around a lot of different rooms, the place is huge after all.
There are a lot of artists who have installations within the various rooms. Some of them were inspiring while others were just downright strange. There were some giant shoes made out of pots and pans that was about 15 feet tall. Very cool.
After exploring the inside of Versailles we went outside to the gardens. We only explored about 1/10 of the gardens. If I ever get the chance to go back I would defiantly spent the majority of my time outside. Alice also said that they had night shows with the fountains on select nights during the summer.
There are plenty of fountains on the main walkway so I imagine that would be a pretty cool show. Well anyways we walked around the main path, which was not paved with cement or asphalt but gravel. Walking around Paris made my "new" shoes even more dirty.
From the Palace of Versailles we went close to our parking spot to a crêperie. We both ordered a complete crepe which had ham, egg and cheese. I got the super complete which also included tomato. I had entree envy because the tomato didn't add anything to the taste, in fact, it probably took away from it. But I was convinced to get a desert crepe that had basically fresh caramel covering it. So good, and as the Parisians do washed it down with an espresso. Can't complain about that. So good and totally stuffed!
After an eventful and relaxing afternoon in Versailles we went back to the family apartment. We spent an evening talking with the boys, her husband included. The boys brought out all their treasures for me to see and share their love for comic books too.
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